THIS year is set to be the hottest year on record, beating the previous highs seen in 2015, the World Meteorological Organisation has said.

With data from just the first nine months, scientists are 90% certain this year will pass the mark set by 2015.

Temperatures from January to September were 1.2 Centigrade above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), while greenhouse gases have also hit their highest levels on record.

In 2015, temperatures were a record 1 Centigrade above pre-industrial levels.

Scotland has been hotter than European hotspots at times this year (Image: Getty)

In the case of heatwaves and high temperatures, climate change increased the probability of some events happening by a factor of 10 or more, the WMO said.

The hot summer in western Europe in 2013 and record annual warmth in Europe in 2014 were among some of the events in which climate change played a part.

Devastating flooding which hit the UK in December last year was made about 40% more likely because of climate change, the research found.

(Image: Getty)

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Record global temperatures have been accompanied by declining Arctic sea ice, melting of the Greenland ice sheet and mountain glaciers, while sea levels have been rising on average by three mm a year since 1993.

Professor Peter Stott, from the Met Office, which contributed to the report, said “When we put all this evidence together across the climate system over a period of time, we can be really confident the climate is changing, we can see the fingerprint of human activity and what that really means.

(Image: PA)

“Climate change is not just something happening in the future - it will happen in the future and it will get worse with future emissions, but it’s not just about the future, it’s not just about a theoretical possibility.

“It’s happening now and it’s having an impact.”

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The five-year assessment comes just days after entry into force of the Paris Agreement, the world’s first comprehensive climate deal in which countries committed to drive down emissions to curb temperature rises.

It is being published for the latest round of United Nations climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco, which are expected to focus on implementing the agreement secured in the French capital last December.

WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said: “We just had the hottest five-year period on record, with 2015 claiming the title of hottest individual year. Even that record is likely to be beaten in 2016.

(Image: Getty)

“The effects of climate change have been consistently visible on the global scale since the 1980s: rising global temperature, both over land and in the ocean; sea-level rise; and the widespread melting of ice.

“It has increased the risks of extreme events such as heatwaves, drought, record rainfall and damaging floods.

“In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were six to seven Centigrade above the long-term average.

"Many other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska and north-west Canada were at least three Centigrade above average.

(Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror)

"We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different.”

According to the analysis, 16 of the 17 warmest years have been recorded this century. The only exception was 1998.

Scientists first began recording the Earth’s temperature in the 1850’s but now thousands of readings from points all over the globe are assessed.